Empire and the slave trade · KS3 History

The British Empire

At its height in the early 1900s, the British Empire covered about a quarter of the world's land and people.
India was called the "jewel in the crown". It was controlled by the East India Company and then ruled directly by Britain from 1858 (the Raj) until independence in 1947.
In the late 1800s, European countries raced to take over Africa (the Scramble for Africa). The Empire's effects are still debated: it brought wealth to Britain, but through conquest, violence and control of other peoples.

The triangular trade: ships took goods (guns, cloth) from Britain to West Africa, took enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and the Americas, and brought sugar, cotton and tobacco back to Britain.
About 12 million Africans were forced across the Atlantic. British ports such as Liverpool, Bristol and London grew rich.
On the Middle Passage, enslaved people were chained and packed below deck with little food or air, and many died. On plantations, they faced brutal work and punishments.

Enslaved people resisted by rebelling, running away, working slowly and keeping their culture. In Haiti, a revolution led by Toussaint Louverture ended slavery and created an independent country in 1804.
Campaigners included Olaudah Equiano (who had been enslaved and wrote about it), Thomas Clarkson, Granville Sharp and William Wilberforce, who led the campaign in Parliament. People signed petitions and boycotted sugar.
The Slave Trade Act of 1807 ended the British slave trade. The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 ended slavery in most of the British Empire. Slave owners were paid £20 million in compensation; the people who had been enslaved received nothing.

Empire: A group of countries or lands ruled by one country.
Triangular trade: The trade route between Britain, West Africa and the Americas.
Middle Passage: The journey of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic.
Plantation: A large farm where enslaved people were forced to grow crops such as sugar.
Abolition: Ending something by law, such as slavery.
Abolitionist: Someone who campaigned to end slavery.
Resistance: Actions taken to fight back against slavery.
Boycott: Refusing to buy something as a protest.
Compensation: Money paid to make up for a loss.